PLOVER — Family-owned KP Appliance first opened in a small, rented room across from the Sky Club in Plover. Peggy Slowinski, co-owner, said back in 1984, her husband, Kurt, did most of the selling and maintenance of products by himself.

Almost 30 years later, the store now has its own building at 1300 Okray Ave. in Plover, but Slowinski said the only employees aside from her and Kurt are their two sons, Martin and Frank. Despite the small staff, the Slowinskis say they have built a reputation for reliability because they service every machine they sell. KP Appliance sells and maintains the latest models of General Electric, Hotpoint and Wisconsin-made Speed Queen appliances.

Answer: Weíre family-owned. We do our darnedest to give our customers a little more. We go that extra mile because we see our customers in the grocery store, in church, everywhere.

Q: Why keep the business completely family-owned and operated?

A: I donít think anyone would treat our customers as well as we do.

Q: Being around for almost 30 years as a small, niche-market business, how do you keep business strong in a recession?

A: We donít really see a lot of low points. We do service as well as selling, so in low points, people are servicing their machines instead of buying, and in high points, people buy new machines. Weíve been lucky.

Q: What advice can you offer someone considering opening a small business?

A: The best thing is to be honest with your customers. Itís a lot of hard work. You need to want to work. When youíre self-employed, youíre always working and thinking about your business.

Q: You sell only a few brands and you service everything, so obviously loyalty is important. How did you build loyalty?

A: I think from honesty. I had one lady tell me she would only buy GE and only from KP because Kurt came out to fix her machine on Christmas Eve.